Ah, hotel.

Ellen is coming in less than a week. It's nerve breaking, I tell you.

So, I'm going to guess that every single person reading this has no idea what I'm about to talk about, but I'm going to talk about it anyway. And as you may have guessed from the title, it's about Hotel.

Growing up as a child, one of the few comforts that I had was the telly. I could hide from the injustices in the world and just watch television. That is, until the monsters came to get me. A euphemism, I assure you, albeit a cruel one. But that is a story for another time, perhaps.

And it just so happened that there was one particular show I would watch as often as I could. And it was Hotel. Ah Hotel, with your loveable characters, familiar settings, amusing situations... Yes, I grew up on Hotel. It was a great show. I loved every minute of it, and cheered every time they announced a new season of Hotel. Of course, then I moved to California, and was deprived of a television set for several years...so. Yeah.

TO THIS DAY, I still remember several scenes from the show. Like when Ippei (that's the assistant manager guy) accidentally chipped a priceless set of samurai armor. Or when these gangsters came and crushed an apple in a threatening show of force because Ippei inadvertantly caused one of the daughters to have her eyebrow shaven. Or when this mother abandoned her kids at the hotel and so Ippei tried to make them the perfect omelettes. Ah, all priceless memories. Of course, I was a kid back then, so all these stories could be wrong, but I remember the shaving of the eyebrows, and the crushing of the apple, and the samurai armor missing a vital piece, and etc. All childhood memories of mine of a happier time.

Then of course I try to find the show so I can watch it again. The first thing I find is that the show continued to air from 1990-2002! WOW.

The second thing I found was that apparently no one else shares my love for this show.

The third thing I found was this. Yes, you're reading that right. $190.00 for Season 3. And not the whole of Season 3, just "Season 3 Part 1" Sigh. My dreams, my hopes, dashed. No subtitled, cheap version of this show exists? Am I to forever part with a piece of my childhood? I guess it just wasn't meant to be. Like a lot of things in my life. Yes...I remembered that event oh so long ago today. I don't know why I remembered it. I remembered what it did to me, that day.

It's late. I have work.

I was thinking of you when I thought about it. Funny, isn't it? And to think that you were there on that day too. Everyone was...but you were there for me in a way that no one else was....Is that why I'm drawn to you?